That's an Intriguing Notion, in its Own Way
by CreationsGoneAwry
Summary: Haruhi and the Hosts are celebrating her seventeenth birthday at her house when suddenly Kyoya asks her a crazy question. While she still wants to pursue a relationship with Tamaki, how will this marriage affect her life? TamakiHaruhi, KyoyaHaruhi, and others popping up at times. May change to M for future chapters. Based on both anime and manga. UPDATES WHENEVER. I'M SORRY.
1. Chapter 1

**WARNING: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR THE ANIME AND THE MANGA IN THIS STORY. READ AT OWN RISK. Thanks.**

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The fathers of the Ootori and Suoh families watched as the latter's son attempted to dance with the girl named Haruhi Fujioka. There was a slightly romantic moment between them as the blond son slowly stuck out his hand towards the girl, who was about to accept the offer to dance until a certain black-haired teenage boy cut in.

He stole Haruhi from the blonde – who breathed fire to show everybody his anger – and began twirling her around, causing her dress to fly with the wind they created. This continued for a few minutes until he grew tired of his friend's glares, and then he set her free into Tamaki's arms, who gladly accepted his new girlfriend.

From high up on one of the top floors of the school, the fathers of these boys laughed, having watched the scene. The black-haired parent, Ootori, spoke first.

"That honor student girl – Haruhi Fujioka was it?"

At this the blond father turned around to face his potential friend. They had set aside their differences for at least this one night in order to watch their sons and their shared friends have fun.

"I'm thinking of having her marry Kyoya in the future."

Suoh didn't know how to react to this. That girl was the only thing that made Tamaki, his son, happy. To have her taken away from him so briefly… wait, no, that wasn't the right way of thinking. Surely the girl would leave Tamaki soon enough, anyway, due to his recklessness and senselessness. She probably knew it already, even. It was only a matter of time before things sorted themselves out.

Mr. Ootori didn't miss a beat while the other male in the room acted just like his son, overthinking things.

"Please keep that in mind."

The blonde cleared his throat, now able to form an at least somewhat coherent sentence. "I guess we aren't going to get along so well, after all."

Some friendships were just never meant to be, instead doomed to remain rivalries.

…

"Tamaki-senpai, could you _please _stop growing mushrooms in the storage room?"

An annoyed Haruhi stared at a depressed Tamaki for the third time within the week. This time, it was about cake. For whatever reason, Tamaki was upset that Haruhi was given a small piece of strawberry cake, her favorite – which wasn't strange at all, considering it was her seventeenth birthday and everything – and ended up with more strawberries than she wanted and resorted to giving them to Honey. The little blond boy was ecstatic with this, of course, and hugged Haruhi as hard as his little arms would let him. In turn, the younger, but taller, blonde was angry. He wasn't getting enough attention, apparently.

"My little girl doesn't love her daddy anymore…" Tamaki whined a little too loudly to be heard by just himself, but it was probably intentional, knowing him.

Haruhi sighed but ignored him. He'd get over it soon enough, just like the other two times he'd gotten upset this week. She thought he would've maybe grown out of this, since they were more or less dating, but she was wrong. Again. But really, when talking about Tamaki-senpai, _anyone _could guess wrong.

"Hai, senpai," the twins spoke in unison as always. "Come over here and watch Haruhi open her gifts."

Honey and Mori stayed in silence – well, Mori did, anyway, while Honey ate his cake – and Kyoya just pushed up his glasses. Whether it was signaling a coming end to his patience nobody knew.

Hikaru and Kaoru took initiative and grabbed some of the gifts since nobody else seemed to be very interested, for unknown reasons. Kaoru took one closest to him, which happened to be Honey-senpai's gift to the girl, and set it beside Haruhi with a huge smile on his face. Haruhi could only guess that this meant he knew what was in the box – the smallest box there, in fact.

Hikaru, on the other hand, went out of his way to the other side of the room to grab Tamaki's gift, which was the second smallest, but before he could, a hand reached his arm and held it in a death grip.

"Hikaru! Do not touch my present! I want to be the one to give it to her!" When all eyes landed on him at last, his voice grew louder. "She _is _my little girl, after all."

The redheaded twin winced and managed to pull away from Tamaki's vice grip. "Then, tono, when do you want to give it to her?" He rubbed gingerly at the red mark that made its way to the surface of his arm's skin.

Tamaki looked away, suddenly not seeming like himself. Suddenly, all the mushrooms on his back were gone. "I…I want to wait to give it to her. I want to be the last gift-giver!"

Haruhi rolled her eyes at her senpai. It was probably something completely useless, like a new wallet or something of the material sort. Ever since her first few days at the Host Club when 'Princess' Ayanokoji dumped her stuff into the pond and her wallet got ruined, Tamaki insisted that she let him buy her a new one, which she always declined because the wallet she had still functioned fine for its job.

The twins looked at each other and shrugged, and Hikaru ran off to get another gift while Kaoru nudged Honey-senpai's gift further towards Haruhi. Honey could see this now, and he got excited because he knew Haruhi would like it. Or, at least he really thought she would. After all, who doesn't like –

"A cake?"

Sure enough, what Haruhi stared down at was another cake, this time chocolate flavored. There was something odd about it, though. It was shaped into the form of a head… Upon closer studying, she noticed it was her head, and the brownies that lay on top of the frosting shaped her face. As far as she knew, it was indeed very accurate.

"Haru-chan! Do you like it?" Honey-senpai blurted out. "I hired ten professional bakers to make it for you!"

Haruhi's eyebrows twitched. Ten…professional bakers? For one cake? She was lucky if she ever got help from her dad, just one person, while making one of her cakes. To add eight more to the equation…that was a bit much.

But she pushed that thought aside and instead focused on the cake. It looked delicious, to be sure.

"I really like it, Honey-senpai. Thank you!" She flashed her signature smile, tilting her head in the process. Tamaki blushed and resisted the urge to hug his 'daughter' while Honey smiled back and pulled a knife from out of somewhere.

Right before he started slicing into the cake, Mori caught his arm. Honey glanced up at him, a surprised look in his eyes.

"Takashi…"

"It's her cake," Mori explained simply.

"B-but…"

"Let her have it."

The two stared at each other while the rest of the Host Club stayed in silence – though Kyoya took a picture for future magazines and therefore profits – until Haruhi spoke up.

"Honey-senpai, we can share it if you'd like." She smiled again and looked at Mori, who, upon seeing her reaction, let go of Honey's arm but still kept a wary eye on him.

With nothing to hold him back now, Honey raised his right arm to slice the cake into two distinct halves, but another hand grabbed hold of him just as he was about to break through the layers.

"Honey-senpai, cake can wait," Hikaru said, pushing the chocolate cake out of the way so it was in front of Kyoya. The Shadow King surely wouldn't do anything to Haruhi's cake. Honey pouted a little bit but hugged onto Usa-chan a little tighter so he could smile when Kaoru brought over a massive gift. It seemed this one was from Mori.

The first thing about the box, other than its intimidating size, that Haruhi noticed was its wrapping paper. It seemed to be a little bit off-kilter, as if he'd wrapped it himself. That made it more special in a way, though, she guessed. She made a mental note that Mori-senpai always seemed like the independent type, so it would make sense that he wouldn't ask for any assistance with this. She placed her fingers underneath the folds of the wrapping paper that were held together by tape – she had to give him a lot of credit for making it look like an actual present, though, since all the other gifts came in pre-wrapped boxes or just regular 'rich people' boxes that had designs printed to look like wrapping paper – and began to tear. She felt a little bad for destroying Mori-senpai's hard work but quickly pushed the thought away when she saw what was inside the box.

There was some tissue paper at first, so she took it out and threw it to a side of the room, uncaring when Tamaki let out a sharp gasp as the material landed on his head, and underneath it was the biggest stuffed animal Haruhi'd ever seen. To put it understandably, it was an oversized Usa-chan, having all the qualities of the little stuffed bunny Honey-senpai carried around except larger. Even the same shade of pink was present.

"Mori-senpai, where did you find this?" Haruhi took the gigantic stuffed bunny, easily twice the size of herself, and showed it off. The others didn't seem half as impressed as Haruhi was, though, which wasn't surprising considering how rich they were. They probably received these huge toys as Christmas presents when they were kids.

Mori didn't speak, only smiled, so Honey spoke for him. "We ordered it from the same company who makes stuffies like Usa-chan!"

"I thought your grandmother hand-sewed Usa-chan for you?"

"Mm! But before she passed away, she wanted our family to receive a kind of inheritance, so she sold the recipe to a huge toy manufacturer all the way over in China!"

Haruhi was really amazed at what money could do for someone if it was the right amount. She'd begun to wonder about how much this present had cost, but Honey began talking again.

"But the gift wasn't my idea! Takashi thought of it when we were on our way home from school one day."

_Is that so… I was about to call Mori out for being dependent rather than independent. _But that didn't matter now, because Kaoru took the stuffy from Haruhi and placed it in the other room (because there was no space for it in the small room of Haruhi's house that they were in), replacing it with yet another gift. This time it was from Kaoru and Hikaru themselves. She gulped unconsciously, only imagining what was in it for her.

Kaoru winked at her before scooting back to sit next to his brother.

Unlike Mori-senpai's gift, the twins' was a box that was printed with a wrapping paper design rather than the paper itself. She supposed that made it a lot easier for her to open, however, so she didn't pay much mind to the fact. There _was, _however, tape underneath the flaps of the large box, and as she attempted to pick it off with her fingernails, the twins beside her laughed at her efforts, to which she turned and glared.

She finally managed to slice through all of the tape with her nails, though, and she lifted the side flap of the box, unveiling what was inside.

"_Another _box?" Haruhi grimaced. The twins cracked up and Tamaki glared at them.

"Don't make fun of my little girl," he growled, and they laughed louder. Haruhi sighed and picked through the next box.

"Oh hey, another box…" She grew tiresome after the fourth box-inside-of-a-box, and was about to call it quits when she noticed something about the box afterwards. It was smaller than the rest, of course, but still decent-sized. She figured she might as well try to open this one, too, and as she inched closer to the flaps she could see a little piece of blue fabric sticking out.

She unraveled a beautiful blue and black dress, just the perfect size for her body. Tamaki looked over and blushed as she held it up close to her person, smoothing it out against her frame to predict how it would look on her.

_K-kawaii… _he thought. But then his expression changed to an angry one once he remembered who gave her such nice clothing.

"Hikaru! Kaoru! What do you think you're doing giving my little girl that outfit?!"

The twins shrugged and put on their blank faces. "Don't you want to see her wear it, tono?" they asked in unison.

Tamaki pointed an accusing finger at them both, but took it back as the red on his cheeks grew darker. "Y…yes, I do, but that has nothing to do with it!"

"Tamaki, let it go," a voice from the corner of the room finally spoke. All eyes turned towards Kyoya, who pushed up his glasses like he'd done so many times before. "Haruhi can wear whatever she wants."

Tamaki grew angrier. "Mommy! How can you say that about our little daughter Haruhi?! She's precious! She can't be seen in such…revealing clothes!" He gestured to the chest area of the dress, which was shaped in a V-neck, and the way it clung to Haruhi's form even when she wasn't wearing it told Tamaki that there was much more to be seen.

Haruhi pretended to not hear Tamaki and Kyoya and instead placed the dress back inside the box it came in and handed it to Kaoru to take it somewhere else. Hikaru grabbed one of the two remaining gifts, though he couldn't really grab Tamaki's he supposed, and handed it to Haruhi.

"Kyoya-senpai, you got me something as well?"

Kyoya pretended to look insulted by the girl's question. "Haruhi, of course I did! Do you really think that little of me?"

She shrugged it off and stared at the box before deciding to open it. It wasn't as big as the twins' or Mori's boxes, but it was bigger than Honey's and Tamaki's, from what she could tell, anyway.

What was inside of it was something Haruhi would've never expected to see in a gift from Kyoya. Well, from a gift to her, anyway… Maybe if it was for another girl, she would've understood more, but this just didn't make any sense.

It was… a jewelry case?

"Um… Kyoya-senpai, are you certain that this gift is for me?"

Kyoya didn't need to glance up to see the gift in question, and instead kept his eyes glued to the clipboard he always had with him, taking notes for whatever reason. "I am indeed positive, Haruhi." He made his signature move with his glasses again before continuing. "I suppose it would have made more sense to save _my _gift for last, but Tamaki insisted that his was last and everything…"

Haruhi wasn't really listening to him. Instead, she focused on what she thought was a case for jewelry. What reason could Kyoya-senpai possibly have for giving her jewelry? His gift to her last year had been simple, nothing meaningful or useful to her at all. If she remembered correctly, it was an upgrade chip for the cellphone that the twins bought for her. It did something like making it easier to complete calls while not in a service zone…or something like that, anyway. She was never too much into technology. Of course, she never had the time for such time-consuming interests due to her house chores and schoolwork.

But really… jewelry? She was still confused. Apparently, so were the other Hosts around the table, because nobody spoke for the several minutes that Haruhi took trying to examine the box without opening it (everybody besides Tamaki, anyway, who believed he instantly knew what the box held and resorted to insisting that Haruhi open his gift now rather than later). But then Kyoya cleared his throat, looking up from his clipboard to see Haruhi.

Oh, how he didn't want to do this…

"Haruhi, if you'd prefer, I could open it for you so that I could do this properly."

"WHAT?!" the twins and Honey shrieked altogether. Mori had the same look of shock on his face but remained silent.

The brown-eyed girl stayed just as confused as she had been, maybe a little more now, though. It seemed everybody knew what was going on besides her. Even Tamaki, who was usually clueless about everything, seemed to have at least some idea of what was happening. She just didn't get it.

"Haruhi, you're not going to say yes, are you?" Hikaru and Kaoru asked.

_Say yes to what…?_

Just then Haruhi heard the shifting of metal on wood and glanced over to see Kyoya stand up (he probably moved the clipboard away from him, causing the noise). The sun shining in through the windows caused a glare to appear on his glasses, so she couldn't see his expression. Though, she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to now. He loomed over her for a moment before reaching down and grabbing the velvet box from the table.

Everyone was silent.

Haruhi was still as confused as before.

Kyoya knelt down so that he was face-to-face with her, and then he looked her in the eyes. The sun's glare was gone now and Haruhi could see his dark orbs looking both exhausted yet entirely alert at the same time.

Her breath caught in her throat. Everything went silent and nothing in the world mattered than what Kyoya was next about to say – ask, rather.

"Haruhi Fujioka, will you marry me?"

* * *

_A/N: My newest project! Can anybody guess why Kyoya's suddenly asking Haruhi to marry him? Does he love her? Or is he doing it for some other reason? Perhaps he's mad at Tamaki for something and wants to hurt him? Hmm... Guess we'll have to find out next chapter! (which will probably be out sometime this week, depending on my schedule. My schedule sucks, for those of you who don't know me. I'm a really good procrastinator.) Anyway, next chapter will be mostly from Kyoya's POV and tell what made him do this so suddenly. And the title will play very important parts, just not quite yet. It's one of my favorite quotes from the anime._

_Oh, and Haruhi's seventeen! That means she's in the second half or so of her second year, as are the twins, and Kyoya and Tamaki are third-years while Honey and Mori are in college somewhere. I promise to give Mori more love in this story. I absolutely love him. And I'll make the relationship between Tamaki and Haruhi better... It just seemed kind of appropriate in this chapter, considering his mood. I can't imagine them being all lovey-dovey in front of people anyway. I'd much rather portray their relationship like it was in episode 8 where only those two know about how close they are. Yeah._

_Oh wait. I should probably say this down here as well as up there before the story starts._ **THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR THE ANIME/MANGA IN THIS STORY. I WON'T HOLD ANYTHING BACK. _  
_**

_All right, I think that's enough ranting. I really hope you guys like this! First story in the series for me, I hope to make it good. Stay tuned!_

~CGA


	2. Chapter 2

**WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE ANIME AND MANGA. READ AT OWN RISK. Thanks.**

* * *

"Kyoya, come here for a moment, would you?"

Kyoya looked up from his signature clipboard to see his father staring down at him. He pushed his glasses up and put the clipboard down when he saw his father start to walk away. He suspected it was a serious matter his father wished to discuss with him.

The Shadow King made his way through the many hallways of the Ootori estate until he reached his father's office door. Of course this wasn't the one he worked from, but it was the one he talked with a lot of clients in. Most of the times that's all Kyoya was to his father – a client.

He pushed the door open and made no move to show his father how nervous he was. Today was Saturday, a day of the weekend. Otou-san never made any business moves on weekends. He always waited for school days because everybody was busy with work and couldn't think of rational responses to why the Ootori company shouldn't buy them out.

"Have a seat, son," Yoshio told him. Kyoya did so, and his father made sure that the door was closed before continuing.

"Kyoya, have you been thinking about how you're going to be successful in life?"

Yoshio would have never told his son, but he actually felt bad to know that his son didn't want one of his companies, and instead would go so far as to buying it only to thrust it right back in his father's face. So, what did this mean for the teenager? Did he have some other plan for his life?

Apparently there was some sunlight coming in through the barely-open window shades in the room because when his father looked at him he couldn't see his eyes because of the glare on his glasses.

Kyoya took a while to respond, but when he finally did, Yoshio couldn't say he was too surprised.

"Yes, Otou-san, I have." And then he paused and looked down at the floor a little bit, a habit of his that his father had never seen before. "But I have not thought of anything."

It wasn't a lie, either. Kyoya was always thinking about what he was going to do with his life. He didn't want to become a doctor like his older brothers. In fact, he didn't really want to be anything that would attract too much attention to himself.

Yoshio smiled. It was a little too happy to let his son know he was concerned about him.

"Would you terribly mind some guidance?"

Kyoya glanced up. "From you, Otou-san?" His father nodded. Kyoya paused a second, imagining what his father's plan might be. It'd probably be better to go along with it, in any case. "I'd want nothing more."

The man remained smiling and sat back in his chair. "What has become of Tamaki Suoh? Are the two of you still close friends?"

Kyoya managed a simple nod.

"Isn't he dating that honor student girl now, Haruhi Fujioka?"

Again, he nodded. "Yes, Father."

"From what I have seen from afar, you are in exponentially higher spirits when you are with her. I recall last year, seeing you two dance together, you were particularly happy."

Kyoya didn't respond.

"Just this last week, you brought your friends over for a small party, was it?"

His son nodded, remembering the instance. The twins had suggested a sleepover, and since Haruhi's house was too small, the rest of the Host Club pulled straws to determine which person's house they would go to. Needless to say, Kyoya won – lost, more like.

"At dinnertime, Fujioka-san and you sat next to each other, and she talked to you with an indiscernible expression. I could see you hesitate to answer in your eyes." Yoshio looked straight at his son now. "You tend to think more clearly when she is around. That would bring indescribable success to the Ootori name. I can imagine no other girl more qualified to serve as your wife."

The teenager still didn't respond. What could he say to that, anyway? He supposed what his father was saying was true. He _did _feel like he thought more rationally, though it took more time to clear out his thoughts, whenever Haruhi was around. But to claim her as his wife? That was absurd. His father had, of course, set up little playdates every now and then to determine what kind of girl made him a better man, but none had ever exceeded his father's expectations.

"I do understand that you are now eighteen," his father continued. "However, as long as you live under my roof, you will do as I say. And I highly doubt you are in a position to defy me, am I right?"

To this Kyoya finally gritted his teeth. His father had the upper edge, after all. Kyoya had spent almost all of his time at the Host Club earning money to use not only for the Club itself but also for his own use. They were very meager earnings at first, but once he realized what the ladies loved – Hikaru and Kaoru, for instance – he began printing magazines upon magazines of 'scandalous' photos, which the girls lapped up in a heartbeat. After that, whatever was not used on the Club at the end of the month, Kyoya pocketed. And after about a year and a half of doing this, he raised enough money to finally tell his father off, which basically meant what he did last year with his father's medical company.

The Ootori family may have been indeed very wealthy, but the third son (and possibly even all the children, as far as Kyoya knew) was poor. School expenses were covered, but other than those, Kyoya had to earn his own living.

All of this really just meant that if Kyoya defied his father, he would be out on the streets without inheritance. He would be a poor man out alone in the world.

"If we understand each other," Yoshio started, "then I imagine you would have no problem courting Fujioka-san by the end of the week."

…

Kyoya practiced his lines again, in front of the mirror as usual. He had to time it so that when he asked her, she wouldn't be able to see his eyes – they would be a dead giveaway to his true feelings.

He had actually been quite proud of the ring his father had picked out, despite everything. It was elegant yet simple enough so that Haruhi wouldn't feel overwhelmed. Well, she shouldn't have, anyway. There's no telling what goes through a commoner's mind. In the center of the white gold ring was a clear diamond that reflected all colors in the sunlight. It was truly dazzling, and even a guy like Kyoya Ootori knew that.

However, there was one thing about the ring that just set him off (minus the fact that he would have to propose, of course). Engraved on the inside of the ring were the words _Haruhi Ootori. _He couldn't say for sure just why this bothered him…but it did.

Kyoya knelt down in front of the mirror, trying his best to hide his eyes from even his own sight. He didn't even want to catch a glimpse of the shame he would see hidden in them. He fixed the tie around his neck and pushed up his glasses, focusing on his reflection.

"Haruhi Fujioka, will you marry me?"

Just then Kyoya could hear the curtain in the Host Club's room being drawn open and the voice that came with it.

"Kyo-chan, are you okay?"

He glanced over to see Honey with a look of wonder plastered on his face.

"We're about to have cake!" he announced, his face now dripping with excitement as he thought nothing of what Kyoya was doing behind closed curtains. It was just Kyoya, after all. Everybody in the Club knew he was weird.

Kyoya stood up and nodded at Honey, and then walked past him into the crowd of customers who were here to celebrate Haruhi's seventeenth birthday.

It had seemed like just yesterday he received the ridiculous task from his father, although it had been almost a week ago. He wasn't actually sure of what day it was, considering he spent most of his alone time practicing for the moment when the time came.

His father had practically kicked him out this morning, which was why he was so determined to do this today. Why had he waited until _today_, though? It was a stupid move on his part. He'd likely never have Haruhi alone to himself on today of all days. She was the subject of attention, as is anyone on their birthday.

And there she was, sandwiched in between girls. How she had managed to remain herself within a group like that, Kyoya would never know. At times, when she was calm like this, he considered lowering her debt, but then he realized he couldn't do that because of the expenses of the Club. Besides, she raked in some pretty nice money, and it would be a shame to let her go just like that. That was why he always made sure that she stayed clumsy, so she could break more expensive things like the flowerpot earlier that week. It easily cost 200,000 yen, and Haruhi was astonished when it happened.

She continued talking and smiling with the girls around her, and Tamaki continued staring at her from afar, sad that she wasn't spending any time with him as usual, and Kyoya smiled as he walked over to the twins, who weren't doing anything at the moment because everyone was busy with Haruhi.

"Hikaru, Kaoru."

The redheads looked up. "Ah, Kyoya-senpai," they said. "What can we do for you?"

They seemed to be in lower spirits than usual, which was understandable considering they weren't doing much of anything. Hikaru had his Nintendo DS out while Kaoru watched him play it.

Kyoya pushed his glasses up. "We should plan a party for Haruhi. Today, after school?"

Hikaru seemed confused. "Eh? What's with you, senpai? You don't ever want to do anything with Haruhi outside of school."

Kaoru agreed. "That's right. Even tono is reluctant about allowing us to play with Haruhi after school."

The Shadow King smiled. "Don't worry about Tamaki. I have it all sorted out." He quickly glanced over at the blonde, who was still hiding behind the same pillar watching Haruhi from his spot. His expression faltered a bit when he realized what he was going to do to his best friend, but his smile returned as he knew it was for the best. The best for him, anyway. Tono would get over it.

"You two, have your presents ready by the evening. Meet at Haruhi's apartment complex at five. I'm going to go talk to Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai."

As Kyoya walked away, the twins looked at each other and shrugged. Kaoru reached into his pocket to pull out his cellphone to call their mother to arrange preparations for a good present.

The Ootori son came up to Honey and Mori and was about to speak but Honey blurted out, "Kyo-chan! We're out of cake! Out of cake!"

Mori sat with an indiscernible expression at the table, but it seemed he wasn't too bothered by this revelation.

"Don't worry, Honey-senpai. I'll have more cake for you by the morning," Kyoya said, making a mental note to give the caterers another call, the fifth this week. Honey looked positively happier and returned to his seat at the table with Mori, hugging his Usa-chan to make up for the lack of cake in front of him.

"Honey-senpai, Mori-senpai," he started again, "there will be a party after school for Haruhi at her house. Are you two able to arrange for transportation and gifts?" He fumbled with his glasses once more.

"Mm," came Mori-senpai's answer, signaling that he had no problems with the arrangements. Perhaps he'd already gotten a present for the brown-eyed girl.

Honey-senpai replied in the same manner as well. So there were no problems there. Now came the hardest part, Kyoya realized when he walked away from the two University students and over to his friend, Tamaki Suoh.

"Oh, Kyoya, it's horrible! Look at my poor Haruhi! She's all alone over there with all those…those _girls! _They want her for themselves, I just know it!"

The black-haired man sighed as he watched the girl in question continue conversing with the girls around her, not seeming lonely in the slightest. In fact, she looked rather happy to receive such attention.

He was about to back out and walk away but thought better of it, thinking it would be mean to leave him in the dark.

"Tamaki, after school today, meet at Haruhi's house around five for her surprise birthday party," he explained.

Tamaki looked up and locked eyes with him, then glared. "Kyoya! What gives you permission to arrange a party with _my _girl?!"

Kyoya didn't miss a beat. "Ranka-san likes me."

The blonde felt those words pierce through his chest and fell back onto the floor, remembering all those unfortunate incidents consisting of Haruhi's dad and him. It was mostly her dad who did the fighting, but still. Tamaki knew that if he was the one to throw the party, Haruhi's dad would never allow it, but since it was Kyoya who was throwing it, Ranka-san wouldn't be angry.

Tamaki went over to a corner of the room and brought his knees up to his chin, sulking. Before Kyoya left, though, he heard him speak.

"I'll be there at five."

…

It was almost time to leave. Kyoya had changed into his casual clothes, the tan-ish button-up shirt and some jeans, and was getting ready to leave when there came a knock on his door.

"Kyoya-san?"

"Come in," the Shadow King replied as he fixed his collar in the mirror.

Fuyumi entered, looking concerned. "Is everything all right, Kyoya?"

He stopped what he was doing just long enough for his sister to notice. "Yes, everything is fine. Why?"

Fuyumi sighed and bit her lip, making her way into the room and over to him. "Mother told me about tonight."

Luckily, their father, Yoshio, was out on business, so the incident this morning between him and Kyoya was gone for the time being. His mother at least allowed him to be in the house, but only on the condition that he fulfill his deed to his father. Kyoya was grateful for that.

"Did she now?" Kyoya asked unenthusiastically.

His sister was right behind him now, staring at him through the mirror. She couldn't see much, but she could tell how nervous he was feeling. No matter how hard he tried, he wouldn't be able to cover up his shaking hands.

Fuyumi walked away to sit on the sofa in his room, taking glances every so often at the ring box on the coffee table, absentmindedly reminding Kyoya to wrap it (wrapping mean to put it in the pre-decorated box).

"I don't know if you ever knew this, but my marriage was also arranged."

Kyoya resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Of course he knew her marriage was arranged. That was why she was always so melancholy whenever she was around him. Come to think of it, Kyoya already forgot what his name was. It wasn't as important as his brothers' names of course, because Fuyumi's husband would never inherit anything that was of particular value to the Ootori family. It was confusing why she'd had to marry so early, though.

Naturally, both of his older brothers were already married. He'd always thought that was of their own accord, however. He was just ten years old when his oldest brother, Yuuichi, married his wife. He didn't know her name either, sadly. She came around to family get-togethers during the holidays but other than those times, he never saw her. He never saw his nephew, either, come to think of it. Or his niece.

His other elder brother, the middle brother Akito, also married when Kyoya was young, yet not quite so young. Kyoya was around twelve or thirteen when Akito married, and as per usual, the name of his wife and niece escaped him. It was sad to think about it, but he really didn't know anything at all about his family.

"It isn't so bad," she continued, fumbling with the ring case, running her fingers along the soft velvet.

Well, that was obviously a lie. His older sister never seemed happy while she was married to him. Her first child had been miscarried, leaving her devastated and heartbroken. She returned home after that incident, to which their father had been particularly upset. Their mother understood, though, and since then they had shared a bond that Kyoya still didn't understand and probably would never.

"Please don't try to comfort me, Fuyumi," Kyoya told her, still fumbling with his collar.

The black-haired woman gasped, taken aback by his harsh tone, but nodded. She set the box back on the small table and stood up. Then she looked towards her little brother.

"You never have to do anything you don't want to, Kyoya." And with that, she left through the door she left open, also leaving Kyoya in his wake to realize he was going about his collar all wrong and trying to fix it again.

Within the half hour he had left before leaving, he managed to make himself look somewhat decent (not like he particularly cared) and wrapped the jewelry box inside the pre-wrapped box. And soon enough, he and his driver were on their way to the Fujioka apartment complex at four-thirty in the afternoon.

* * *

_A/N: I've decided how I'm going to run this little shenanigan thing here. I'm going to update every Sunday and Thursday. I've realized how ridiculously easy it is to write for this community, let alone this story, and it's making me want to write more and more. Like, seriously. I completed the first chapter within 3 hours and this one within the same time. I'm used to taking all day to write a single chapter of this size since I'm considerably slow with my writing, especially with the internet to serve as a distraction, and a huge one at that. But I spent no more than three hours on this chapter and I'm proud of it, and I had the internet's all-access pass as well._

_I really have to thank you guys for all your enthusiasm though. This is my most popular story, out of all the other 18, and it's been up for like a day and a half. And I have...what, like 10 followers already? Thanks so much guys! It means a lot :)_

_So yeah. Every Sunday and Thursday there will be a new chapter. So, new chapter on Thursday! Yay for you guys! And it will actually advance the plot, more than this chapter did._

__~CGA


	3. Chapter 3

**WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE ANIME AND MANGA. READ AT OWN RISK. Thanks.**

* * *

"Haruhi! You're not going to say yes, are you?"

"Haruhi! My little girl! She's too young for marriage!"

"Haru-chan! Are you going to do it?"

"…"

Everyone was screaming at her, save for Mori, who just held a look of shock and bewilderment. Haruhi's face began to twitch uncontrollably as she half-smiled and glowered her eyes.

"Kyoya-senpai… You're not serious, are you?"

His face fell a little bit but he quickly recovered as he stood up and again loomed over the small girl.

"I require nothing but your consent," he explained, not really looking at her but looking past her at Tamaki. Kyoya couldn't really see it too much just yet, but he knew that by the end of the night his blond friend would possibly be heartbroken, if he wasn't already. Kyoya couldn't even imagine what this felt like for him.

Sure, Tamaki was an idiot, but he was an idiot who knew what he wanted. Well no, that wasn't really correct either, considering all the Club members minus Haruhi had to tell him how he felt about the girl before he himself realized it. But now that he knew what he wanted, he _knew _what he wanted and wanted to protect it for as long as he could. It was just his way of keeping everything the same.

So for now, the Host Club's king just sat and stared at silence at what was unfolding before him, probably more confused than anything at the moment.

When Kyoya looked back down at Haruhi, she had a finger to her bottom lip and her head tilted slightly. "What makes you so interested in me, senpai?"

He pushed up his glasses and looked away slightly. Would he have to pretend to be interested? It wasn't as if he could really tell his whole life story here… Besides, if he pretended to hold interest for her, it would rack up more sales in the Club. Then maybe, if they cut back on the field trips slightly, he would be able to make enough to slip out of this whole mess altogether.

So he tried his best to make it look convincing.

He held his breath for a few seconds to make his face red and then turned farther away from Haruhi to stare out the window, hoping to catch the attention of either the twins or Honey-senpai so they would notice the fake blush spreading over his cheeks.

It worked, and soon enough the twins noticed his expression, head down and face red and hot.

"Kyoya-senpai! Do you maybe like Haruhi?" they asked together.

"_What?!" _came Tamaki's voice from the other side of the room. "Kyoya! You're Mommy! You can't develop feelings for your daughter!" He appeared right in front of Kyoya, pointing an accusing finger at the older male.

Hikaru piped in. "What about you, sir?"

Tamaki gulped. "What…about…me?" He ran over his and Haruhi's situation in his head. It was true… They had told him that he wasn't allowed to be Haruhi's father anymore since they had developed what they called 'romantic feelings' for each other…but he still thought of Haruhi as his daughter. But they kissed... Was that wrong?

"Am I…in the wrong?" he asked nobody in particular.

"Tamaki, allow me to explain," Kyoya spoke now, recovering from his prior fake embarrassment. Tamaki glanced over at him, a defeated expression on his face. "If word gets out that Haruhi and I are engaged, don't you think more ladies will start coming to the Host Club? Think about it."

He then pulled out his calculator and started doing random addition problems, trying to make his argument more valid. "We average two hundred customers a day, right? Of those two hundred, roughly seventy-five request Haruhi, and one hundred request you. You two are almost equally popular in the Club. Now, today especially, Haruhi was significantly more popular than you, and all the rest of us, combined. Just imagine what would happen if Haruhi and I were together, per se. Wouldn't that make her even more popular?"

"Kyoya-senpai, that doesn't make any sense – "

"Be quiet please, Haruhi. These are business decisions," he shushed her.

"But Kyoya-senpai, wouldn't it make more sense to put Haruhi and tono together, then?" Kaoru asked. Kyoya glared over to him with the "Yes you're right but I don't want Tamaki to figure that out" face. The redhead got the hint and soon both twins were quiet. Luckily for Kyoya, Honey didn't speak up either.

Tamaki stayed silent, thankfully, trying to decipher just what Kyoya meant by all of this gibberish he was spewing. He supposed he didn't really have a reason to distrust Kyoya… After all, he was his first friend when he moved to Japan and wasn't fluent in the language yet.

Kyoya continued nonetheless. "Just imagine all the profits we would make!" he exclaimed finally. "We would make enough money to go to Fiji, the real Fiji!"

"But Haruhi doesn't have a passport," Hikaru chided.

Haruhi sighed. Of course Kyoya was only in this for the money. "Kyoya-senpai, I appreciate the offer, but I'm going to have to decline." Everyone's face was shocked, speaking what their mouths didn't. "As much of an idiot Tamaki-senpai is, I'm perfectly happy being with him, and I don't really want to change that any time soon."

At this, Tamaki ran over to her and hugged her around her shoulders, holding her close to himself. "Haruhi, my little girl! I'm so happy to hear you say that!"

Her face dropped, and she wriggled herself out of his grip. "Thank you for trying to prove my point," she told him sarcastically. Tamaki sunk down to the floor, a weight returning to his person. She looked back over to Kyoya, seeing his face plastered with shock and embarrassment (actual embarrassment this time).

"Maybe we can think of other ways to bring in more money, right, senpai?" she asked innocently, smiling at him.

Kyoya felt so ashamed of himself. Had he not asked correctly? No, surely he had, unless he messed up somewhere in his position…but that couldn't have been it either. Though he was young, he remembered going to the family get-togethers and watching as his brothers proposed to their respective wives. From what he remembered, and if he was remembering it correctly, he was doing everything right – other than the lack of romantic feelings, of course, but now that he was older he learned that one doesn't have to love the other person in order to marry.

In any case, he sucked up his feelings of self-pity and nodded towards the petite girl, but he didn't let it slide. He was far too determined to surpass his brothers to let this slide. "Everyone, might I please ask you to leave the two of us alone for a few minutes?" He pulled his signature move while staring down at Haruhi below him. He didn't pull his eyes away even as Honey and Mori exited through the door to the small apartment (so as to give them more privacy, considering the house's size) and the twins dragged Tamaki out by his shirt while he shouted obscenities at the pair still in the common room.

After the apartment door slammed shut, Kyoya settled down a bit. Good. Now they could talk like actual human beings, mature adults. Honestly, it seemed like nobody else in the entire Club had a sensible mind on his shoulders – save for Mori-senpai, probably. He seemed intelligent enough, anyway.

He opened his mouth but Haruhi beat him to it.

"Kyoya-senpai, isn't marriage illegal at my age?" she asked with that innocence in her tone again.

He knew she would ask this. She had ways of getting out of things, even if she didn't realize it. "Not if you're given parents' permission." And he believed he would have no trouble getting Ranka-san's permission, given his relationship with the transvestite.

Haruhi didn't reply. So Kyoya-senpai was really serious about this?

"Oh, wait, Kyoya-senpai," she said. "Can't we just pretend to be together? After all, no customers know about me and Tamaki-senpai yet so they wouldn't get suspicious. We don't have to get married."

Kyoya winced. Was this why his father was so interested in her? Her common sense? Her intellect? In any case, he had to come up with something fast, some other excuse that explained why they couldn't just pretend to be together…

"Yes, but think of how excited the ladies would get to hear about our engagement," he said lamely, hoping she would bite.

"Ano…" she hesitated. "I suppose that would make more sense…" She then glanced down at the ring on the table, sparkling in the dim light of the common room. "But why did you get a real ring, then? You could have easily used a fake, less expensive ring, and still make it believable."

"I have my own reasons, Haruhi," he retorted at last, no longer able to come up with excuses.

Haruhi shifted around on her feet for a few moments. "Kyoya-senpai… This isn't real, is it?"

At this, Kyoya felt a little like himself again. "Do you want it to be real?" _How did she figure it out so quickly?_

"That's not what I asked."

His face fell. He lifted his head up and stared straight past her towards the door to the apartment. "We should call the others in."

"Kyoya-senpai – "

He walked away, leaving Haruhi to herself for a few seconds, while he reached the door and pulled it open, allowing the hooligans to all step through the narrow frame at once, pushing and shoving each other to see which one of them would see Haruhi first. Of course, the first male to actually make it through was Tamaki.

The blonde ran over to Haruhi and grabbed her shoulders, staring straight into her eyes.

"Haruhi! Are you okay?!"

Haruhi blushed a little, not used to his face being so close to hers quite so often anymore, and looked away. "I-I'm fine, senpai."

The twins followed right after Tamaki and, after seeing the scene, applauded. "Good job, tono! Good job showing Haruhi you care!"

Haruhi wriggled away from Tamaki and glared at him. "Wait, so you only asked if I was okay because Hikaru and Kaoru told you to?" Her eye began to twitch and Tamaki cowered in fear.

But just then the door opened, saving Tamaki from the wrath of his girlfriend, and as they all looked over to see what caused the racket they saw Haruhi's father closing it tight. The trans turned around and saw the Host Club members and smiled.

"Oh! Hello, everybody! What a pleasant surprise!" He turned towards Kyoya. "Kyoya-kun, this was your doing?" He remembered a particular phone call just earlier that day explaining the boy's plans for after school, although he hadn't said what it was.

The Ootori boy seemed to recover from his previous stressful talk almost immediately as he pushed up his glasses and greeted the redhead. "Ah, Ranka-san. Yes, I planned a surprise birthday party for Haruhi today. I hope you don't mind too terribly."

Naturally, for obvious reasons, Ranka was unable to resist the Ootori charm and waved it off with a flick of his rest. "Oh, not at all!" Then he remembered something else, grabbing his purse and pulling something out. It was a little box, no bigger than his hand. "Haruhi, I got you a little something."

He made his way through the kitchen and into the common room to hand the box to his daughter. "It's not much, but at least I remembered this year!" He scratched the back of his neck nervously as his daughter grimaced at him, recalling last year when her dad forgot all about her sixteenth birthday. He tried to make up for it the next day by buying her favorite oatmeal, which was a little more expensive than others, but she stayed angry at him for at least that week.

In any case, though, she opened up the box and took out the tissue paper to see a small ring. She sighed and put the box down, walking out of the room, not answering when her father asked her what was the matter. Kyoya piped in.

"I apologize. This is my fault. Let me go talk to her." He took the case and waltzed off to the outside world where Haruhi went, which was sort of funny because that's where they shooed everybody else just a few minutes prior.

He found her leaning against the siding of the building, closing her eyes. She opened them once she heard the door shut behind Kyoya. He hid the ring inside of his pocket right now – his left one, as his right one held the _other _ring that was sort of more important.

"Haruhi, did you even look at the ring?" he asked in monotone, already knowing the answer. _This is _so _out of character._

"I didn't have to. It's another ring," she replied with equal enthusiasm. She sighed. "I'm ungrateful, right, Kyoya-senpai?" She shook her head when he didn't reply. "My father tries so hard to make me happy, and I always take that for granted."

He didn't really know how to respond to that. Should he say yes, she was being ungrateful? Or did she have a right to be upset? He didn't know her life. He couldn't make fair judgments based on what he saw alone.

"Maybe you just need some time alone to think about things," he stated rather calmly. He hoped she wouldn't catch onto what he was trying to do.

"What do you mean – "

"Come stay at my house tonight," he offered – though his voice made it sound more like a demand. He turned and faced her now, staring straight at her.

She looked away. "Kyoya-senpai, I couldn't possibly – "

"I didn't think you were the type of girl to turn down offers," he joked, smirking when she turned around to look at him again.

Then she smiled. "You're right, senpai. Maybe a night out is what I need. Just a night away from Dad." For some reason, she felt like she could trust Kyoya more than anybody in the Club at that moment.

Kyoya reached into his left coat pocket and pulled out a small box, which Haruhi recognized as the box she saw just minutes before in the house. It had her dad's present to her in it. She was about to object when Kyoya spoke.

"This is a family ring, Haruhi. If you'd had looked at it, you'd have known that."

He gently took the ring out of its case and ran his fingers along the smooth surface of it. This was no cheap ring, he noticed as he did so. Ranka-san had obviously been lying when he told Haruhi it was just 'a little something.' Of course, this ring was nothing in price compared to the other ring that he held in his pocket, but it was quality material for sure.

Haruhi made an 'O' shape with her mouth and just stared as Kyoya ran his fingers over the sterling silver. It was a very beautiful ring, she realized. She was supposed to wear that? She'd always been afraid of wearing jewelry because she was so clumsy… What if she spilled her drink on it? What if it fell off while she was running to school?

She thought she had run out of clumsy things to do after she pulled the stupidest stunt of her life – knocking over that stupid vase in Music Room No. 3. Well, granted, it wasn't such a horrible mistake now… She did have amazing friends because of it. In fact, looking back at it now, it wasn't a mistake at all. It was somewhat of a blessing. She was truly blessed to have her friends.

She was blessed to have Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai. Though the latter never spoke and the former spoke a little too much at times, she was glad to call them both her friends. She was sad to watch them leave Ouran Academy, but once they announced that they'd be back at least once a week, since they went to the same university, she was happy. The Club really wouldn't be the same without them there.

Then there were Hikaru and Kaoru. Though they looked so much alike, she could tell them apart; though, it seemed like she was the _only _one who could tell them apart. She remembered hearing them complain about how nobody could ever tell them apart, but then she came along. Of course, there was always Tamaki, but most of the time he relied on blind guesses and good luck.

Speaking of the blonde… She was ecstatic to have Tamaki-senpai in her life. Sure, he was a bit of an idiot. No, he was a huge idiot. But no matter what, he was pretty much the first friend she'd made at the Academy, and their friendship had definitely strengthened after he figured out her fear of thunderstorms. From then on their relationship progressed through her eventually finding out about his family life and wanting to help him reunite with his mother. And that was a good day when it finally came, because she was able to tell him her feelings. Though it was awkward now with everything, she hoped nothing would change between them.

"Haruhi?"

"Hai?"

And then there was Kyoya. He was weird, to say the least. He suddenly sprang this whole 'marriage' thing on her, and she was supposed to just go along with it? She honestly couldn't believe that Tamaki-senpai was acting so calmly about it (relative to his normal behavior at these outbursts, anyway). Wasn't he at least somewhat upset?

But really… Kyoya-senpai. He was an odd one for sure. Sometimes she wished she could get to know him just a little bit better so that she might have an inkling of an idea of what went through his head all the time. It seemed she knew so little about him, because it was true.

Then she remembered that she agreed to stay over at his house tonight. What a stupid decision that was.

All those thoughts dissipated as she felt pressure on her left hand. To be more precise, her left ring finger. She snapped out of her trance and glanced down at the cause, which was Kyoya sliding a white gold piece of jewelry onto her finger.

Wait… White gold? A sparkling diamond in the middle that shined in all colors of the rainbow? Left ring finger?

"Kyoya-senpai… I think you've got the wrong ring," she said suddenly.

"No, I don't."

* * *

_A/N: All right just give me one rant and then I'm off. I dunno if any of you are confused about when this takes place, but the way I see it in my head, it's probably right after [SPOILERS] Tamaki and Haruhi see his mother off at the airport and they confess their feelings to each other. Well okay, not RIGHT after. But you get what I mean, hopefully. The whole America thing doesn't happen in this story, but the Eclair thing did. I guess this is more based off the anime than the manga, except that little detail with Tamaki's mother. I guess we'll just have to see what I implement next then._

_Once again, thanks for all the reviews and favorites! Oh, and the follows too. Those make me look good as well :) Next chapter on Sunday! Hopefully I get over my sickness :l_

~CGA


	4. Chapter 4

**WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE ANIME AND MANGA. READ AT OWN RISK. Thanks.**

* * *

"_Do I make you uncomfortable, Haruhi?"_

_The brunette inched away from her boyfriend's face, her own flushing with a brilliant red. She turned away and acted as if she hadn't heard him at first._

"_Have I found your weak spot?"_

_The blonde nudged his face into her neck, smiling as he heard her squeal with what he believed to be embarrassment. _

"_Tamaki-senpai, I…"_

_He turned her chin so that her face was mere inches from his, and was about to press his lips to hers _when she was awoken by her own heartbeat.

Haruhi jolted up, trying desperately to ignore her shallow breathing and flushed face. She'd never had a dream like that before. This was weird.

She couldn't really complain, she figured. At least it was something that actually happened, rather than something that only happened in dreams. It was more of a flashback than anything. She remembered it was the day before their first date to the amusement park, and Tamaki-senpai had just figured out how to get her to blush. It was quite annoying, to be honest, because after he knew it, he spread the knowledge to the other Hosts, namely Hikaru. After that point it was just pointless torment and embarrassment on her part.

Her feet met with the carpet and she slowly stood up, thankful that the prior night's events didn't lead to her and Kyoya-senpai sleeping in the same bed. She guessed she had the doorknob's lock to thank for that.

She tried to think more about last night, but when she tried voicing her thoughts quietly she realized she was quite parched. _Surely nobody would mind if I got something to drink, right?_

Haruhi put a hand to her forehead as she made her first few steps to the door. Despite the room being almost pitch-black she looked back to make sure that the Shadow King was still asleep in his respective bed before closing her hand around the doorknob and twisting it. With a quiet click of the lock turning, the door was opened and she stepped out into the hallway, making sure to close Kyoya's door behind her.

She let out a sigh of relief. At least there was something out of the way now. Then she glanced all around her at the wide open space of the hallway. It was at least ten feet wide, she noticed as she began to move her feet again. What time was it, anyway? The darkness in senpai's room suggested late night, though the lights throughout the house suggested early morning at least. Perhaps they just left them all on throughout the day. It must've been nice to have that kind of money.

She made her way around a corner, finally, and from her recollections of prior visits and last night in particular, she was able to find the kitchen where she assumed water would be, bottled or not.

This brought her to the thoughts she didn't really want to have resurface – the whole deal with what happened last night.

It seemed that Kyoya-senpai's father was almost expecting to see her, which was weird considering she believed Ootori-sama didn't even notice her before. She was just another commoner. Who was she to him? She should have been nothing, but last night told her that Kyoya's father actually held some interest in her. Well, at least if he didn't, he put on a good play pretending that he did.

On a counter next to the fridge she found a little cooler, and while she didn't know much about rich people – if anything – she decided she might as well check it to see if there was any fancy water. Much to her appeal, when she opened it she found some. It was _KamiNoMizu _brand, apparently. She'd never heard of it before. But when she took off the lid and took a drink, she couldn't stop. It tasted so good, if water ever could. She didn't bother checking the label for more details, instead relishing in the clean, pure taste.

Last night's dinner in particular was strange, though.

_It was roughly seven-thirty when she and Kyoya returned to his house for the night (which Tamaki wasn't entirely thrilled about but Ranka didn't seem to mind), but when they walked through the door and greeted the servants, they were informed that the last meal of the day had been prepared just minutes earlier and that the family was all waiting for them. Haruhi stole a glance at Kyoya, who seemed completely unfazed by all of this. But she was confused. _

_It made sense that the family was waiting for Kyoya, but to have them wait on her, too? That was strange. She did remembered Kyoya calling home when they were in the limo to tell someone that he was on his way back, but he never once mentioned her name. _

"_Haruhi?"_

_She looked up at him, snapping out of her thoughts._

"_Shall we go?"_

"_Oh." Geez, she must've looked like an idiot just standing there. She nodded and followed Kyoya into his house._

_They made their way to the kitchen and suddenly she felt very self-conscious about her choice of clothes for the night. Kyoya-senpai had told her it didn't matter what she wore and not to worry about it, but she felt significantly underdressed now that she looked at the Ootori family._

_The man at the head of the table, whom she presumed to be Kyoya's father because of the memories she recalled of the Ouran Fair, was dressed in a magnificent black suit with a black tie to go along with it. If she didn't know better, Haruhi would've guessed that he was at a business dinner._

_The woman next to him seemed a little bit too old to be Kyoya's sister, so Haruhi guessed that she was his mother. She had beautiful black hair neatly tied up into a bun. Haruhi could see no loose strands sticking out anywhere. She had a serious expression on her face, but when she looked over to see the two teenagers walking in, she immediately smiled. The brunette could instantly tell that she was nice. _

_Next to Kyoya's mother sat a man who looked older than Kyoya but younger than his father. Haruhi guessed he was one of his older brothers. She didn't know his name._

_Come to think of it, she didn't know the name of his other brother, who she guessed was sitting next to his oldest brother, or his sister, who sat on the other side of the table next to their father, either. They were complete strangers to her. She remembered Kyoya talking about his family once or twice, but he'd never mentioned names, she didn't think. _

_Still, she felt bad when she couldn't greet them all by name as she awkwardly took her seat in between Kyoya's sister and himself, as he commanded. Haruhi smiled awkwardly yet sincerely at all the faces that stared back at her. Why had she decided to listen to Kyoya-senpai tonight and come to his house again?_

"_Dinner looks delicious," she announced just loudly enough for them to hear her. And it did. It was some sort of fancy cut steak with a side bowl of salad, along with some other small appetizers she didn't know the names of. _

_Nobody answered her, instead digging in to their own food, especially the three Ootori sons. _

_Dinner dragged on in silence for a few moments before the head of the family began to speak._

"_Everyone, I believe Kyoya has something he would like to share with us."_

_Haruhi glanced over at the Ootori boy, wiping off his mouth with his napkin. He swallowed before talking._

"_Otou-san, you are much better with announcements than I am." He didn't even look up at his father, keeping his eyes closed with his napkin a little away from his face._

_His father didn't look away from Kyoya, but he did fold his hands together, his mouth in a grimace. "Very well." He did a quick glance around the table at his wife's and all his children's faces, and Haruhi's. "Kyoya has just brought home his new fiancée." _

_There were a few shocked expressions around the table, mainly from Kyoya's two older brothers. For the most part, the ladies at the table weren't very surprised, as if they'd already known about the whole ordeal. _

_Haruhi gulped. They all knew about this marriage?_ Kyoya-senpai…? What's going on?

_As if he could read her mind, Kyoya looked down at her when the commotion quieted down and gave her a somewhat apologetic look, surprising her. Kyoya never apologized for anything. This sure was a weird night…_

"_More importantly," Kyoya's father began again, "Haruhi, what are your plans after high school?"_

_The girl finished pushing her food around with her fork and glanced up at the man. "Ano… I want to be a lawyer, like my mother."_

_Naturally, the Ootori man had already done his extensive research on the girl, so he knew her birthday, hobbies, friends, grades, background, etc. While a bit unnerving, he only did so to make sure her commoner lifestyle wasn't just a play. He'd seen many a rich man play the commoner card in his years of business management._

_Nevertheless, he appeared surprised by this revelation. "Oh, a lawyer?"_

"_Hai," she replied, eyes returning to her food. She was usually comfortable around adults, but tonight this was just weird, as she'd already thought many times._

_It probably didn't help that both of Kyoya's brothers were giving her awkward looks every now and then._

"_That sounds promising. You might be able to work at the Ootori law firm just outside of town."_

_Haruhi's eye twitched. _

_Dinner passed painfully slowly for Haruhi, with the Ootori head pestering her about her hobbies and interests, but Kyoya didn't seem to mind. In fact, he hardly talked at all. It wasn't exactly out of the ordinary, but she expected that he might be at least a little bit more comfortable around his own family. _

_After the meal finally ended, Kyoya excused both himself and Haruhi to head back into his bedroom. Kyoya's father behind them didn't say anything until he noticed the very small suitcase Haruhi had with her._

"_Kyoya."_

_At this, the Ootori boy turned around and faced his father, instantly knowing what he was going to say to him._

"_Haruhi, dear, go back to our bedroom now, would you?"_

Our bedroom?

_Thinking that now wasn't the right time to debate the situation, she did as told and made her way back to where she thought she remembered Kyoya's room was located. A few hallways and doors later she found it. She opened the door and set her suitcase down, dreading what the night would bring._

_Kyoya's family sure was strange. Though, she guessed she probably couldn't say that because of her father being a cross-dresser and everything. _

_Haruhi sighed, remembering that she didn't really _need _to come here to Kyoya's house. Why had she agreed, anyway? She told him she wanted to get away from her father, but surely she could have stayed over at Mei-chan's house or something. It wasn't necessary that she spend her time here tonight._

_Or was it?_

_The Ootoris seemed a little bit too knowing of this whole scenario. How could they have known that Kyoya and she were marrying? (It still bewildered her, actually.) Surely Kyoya hadn't talked about it with them, because at dinner it was quite obvious that he didn't talk about much of anything with them. _

_Did they set this up?_

_Haruhi laughed at herself. Of course they hadn't. After all, what would they gain, if anything, by Kyoya marrying her? Absolutely nothing, right? She was a poor girl, a commoner, surely no one that could bring merit to the family. _

_But still, this whole thing made no sense whatsoever. Why did they know about it? Or, at least, even if they didn't, why had they acted like they did?_

_She hadn't realized she was sitting on the white couch in the room until the door opened and in stepped Kyoya, shutting it behind him._

"_Hopefully dinner didn't make you too uncomfortable," he said lamely, walking over to her._

"_N-not at all. I'm just tired," she replied just as lamely, not meeting his eyes._

_Kyoya smirked. "I suppose we should get ready for bed, then." He began to strip his shirt off and when Haruhi finally turned her gaze towards him she noticed this._

"_Kyoya-senpai, what are you doing?"_

"_Undressing," he answered in an un-amused tone, his shirt halfway up his chest. She could see his abs jut out from the skin and looked away embarrassingly. So he really did work out._

"_Never mind that, I'll just sleep here." She brought her legs up to the couch and lay down on her side, facing the inside of the couch so she wouldn't have to put up with the Shadow King._

_He chuckled. "If you insist." When he began climbing up to his own sleeping area, however, he stopped to talk to her again. "I trust that you'll have your things moved in after this weekend?" He asked it as if it was a question, but Haruhi knew it wasn't. _

_But that didn't stop her from being confused. "What?" She poked her head up to stare at the Ootori boy._

"_My father requests that you live with us now that we're engaged." He quickly thought back to just minutes prior when he spoke with his father. He also insisted that the two start sharing a bed, but…that could definitely wait. After all, it was hard enough keeping up his 'cool' ploy whenever he talked to Haruhi about the matter of their new marriage._

"_Oh." She probably should have expected that. That didn't mean it made any more sense of this situation, though. Maybe she'd feel better in the morning._

_Yeah, that was it. Just wait for morning._

_She closed her eyes and tried to ignore the sounds she heard from Kyoya resuming his undressing just tens of feet from her, instead focusing on twisting the white engagement ring on her finger._

She felt a little cooled down and more like herself after a while passed in her thoughts. It was only when she opened her eyes at long last, however, that she noticed a girl with black hair staring back at her.

Haruhi gasped and fumbled with her bottle of water so as not to lose it. She panted as she tried to regain her breath from nearly being scared to death. She turned around to apologize to the lady, who was furiously doing the same.

"Sorry! You scared me!"

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!"

Haruhi sighed in relief as she recognized her from last night's dinner. She had black hair and, while she didn't exactly look like Kyoya, Haruhi could tell that she was his sister.

Kyoya's sister sighed as well. "I usually come out here around this time to grab a late night snack," she explained. "I didn't expect to see anyone else here."

Haruhi tried her best to muster a smile. "I should apologize as well," she said, ignoring the fact that just seconds prior they both had already done so. "Sneaking around in someone's house late at night probably doesn't make me look too good."

"Nonsense." The Ootori girl brushed it aside. "But…since we're both here and all, why don't we talk?"

Haruhi tilted her head. "About what?"

"Well…"

She stopped when her stomach growled, and she looked down and back up again, laughing. "I suppose my stomach should be calmed first. Would you like anything?"

Haruhi thought for a moment but didn't realize she was hungry until her own stomach growled. She laughed sheepishly. "I could go for something."

"Oh! I almost forgot! My given name is Fuyumi." She stuck her hand out for the other girl to shake it.

"I'm Haruhi," the brunette said while taking her hand and shaking it.

"Yes, I know," Fuyumi said while opening up the fridge. "I've heard much about you."

Haruhi glowered his eyebrows in a slight confusion. Who had talked about her? Kyoya-senpai?

Fuyumi then grimaced. "There's never anything easy to prepare in this house." She sighed. "Would you wait here for just a few minutes? I'm going to go wake one of the cooks. I hate to do it at this hour but I don't know how to cook," she said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head and laughing a little. She reminded Haruhi of Tamaki.

The smaller girl nodded and soon enough Fuyumi was walking away from her to some unknown location, at least by Haruhi.

This sure was an eventful night. Still, if what everything she had been told was true, she'd soon be coming into – well, _marrying _into, really – a lot of money. It was kind of funny when she thought about it. Growing up, she'd never known what it was like to be rich. Sure, she'd known what it was like to have money, but not so much that it appeared wherever she went. She'd been able to enjoy a few extra dollars for a candy bar at the supermarket quite a few times, but this, her new life, would be completely different from any of that. She was going to gain so much.

…Of course, that meant she was going to lose a lot as well - for instance, her relationship with Tamaki. That darkened her spirits a bit. Even though they never went out together, just knowing each other's feelings calmed her down and told her that she was wanted, if only by one person. He gave her hope.

But now she was going to lose him. She actually felt guilty and selfish now that she realized she actually wanted to come here tonight by her own accord.

Well, it wasn't really her fault that she was getting married. She was practically dragged here by Kyoya after he slid the ring onto her finger. She tried to object but he didn't listen to her, as always. So it wasn't like she really wanted to go through with this marriage…hopefully Tamaki wasn't too dense to understand that.

But then again, it was Tamaki she was thinking about. Still, she wished she was able to see him now, if only to explain the situation at hand to him.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Haruhi!"

She turned around to watch Fuyumi and one of the cooks of the house come into the kitchen. The male cook seemed sleep-deprived and Haruhi felt guilty again, waking up a cook in the middle of the night just for a snack. She should've told Fuyumi that she would cook something – but then again, thinking about it, she didn't know how to work all these fancy kitchen gadgets. She was used to a stovetop, oven, and microwave at her own apartment, but here they had a wood stove and things she'd never even seen or heard of before.

She smiled at the black-haired girl and made sure her eyes said 'thank you' to the cook.

"Come on, we should sit. Tetsuya won't mind too much if we talk." She looked over at the cook, who had his back turned to the ladies and began preparing food.

Haruhi reluctantly followed Fuyumi over to the table and seated herself across from the older girl. She still couldn't help but think this was a bit…abnormal. Why was everybody from the Ootori family being so nice to her? It just didn't make sense. She wanted answers. But before she could open her mouth to ask, Kyoya's sister across from her began to speak.

"I know about your situation," she said lowly, contradicting her previous statement about the cook not caring whether he heard them or not. Maybe she was just creating drama.

Still, the girl intrigued Haruhi. "What do you mean?"

Fuyumi smiled. "This whole marriage thing. I know it was arranged."

Wait…arranged? So that meant the Ootoris actually _did _set this up? But why? What did she have to give them? She had nothing to her name, she wasn't an heiress to a company or anything like that.

"What?"

"My father set this up. Kyoya-san never told you?"

What…no, Kyoya-senpai hadn't told her anything beyond what was crucial, she suspected. Why would he keep that a secret? Was he embarrassed of it? She had no way of knowing.

Haruhi managed a small shake of her head, and Fuyumi continued as if it was just common knowledge now.

"I went through the same thing a few years back," she reminisced, staring at her folded hands for a few seconds. "It isn't as bad as most make it out to be…but it wasn't what I wanted." Fuyumi looked at Haruhi now. "Is this what you want?"

"Ano…" This question caught Haruhi off-guard, though she wasn't entirely sure what to expect anyway, having barely known the Ootori girl. "I was dragged into this, really, without any explanations or anything. What I want are just some answers." She thought for a second. "Why me? What can I possibly provide for this family?"

Fuyumi looked away. "I honestly have no idea what my father's motives are. But I remember never knowing what his motives were for his own daughter to get married those years ago, either." She bit her lip. "But… If you ever need help with anything, or just want to talk, or maybe even get out of this whole situation, come find me."

Haruhi's mouth fell open about half an inch. All of this made no sense. Was she still dreaming? Everybody in this family was so weird.

Then the cook, Tetsuya, made his way over to the table and placed down two plates with the same food – some crab and a few minced vegetables. This was a late night snack?

But then she realized it was crab. She'd eaten crab with the Host Club when she first started to work for them. It was the night that she and Tamaki had really grown closer to each other.

She sighed inwardly. Maybe she'd take up the girl's offer just so that she would be able to see him.

* * *

_A/N: Meh. Not my best chapter in the slightest. You guys probably feel that way, too. And it's only the fourth chapter in T_T. Oh well. Next chapter will be better. TamakiHaruhi moments, yay! _

_Also, I knoooow Fuyumi is way OOC. I kinda sorta meant for it to be that way. It just works better with the story. Besides, as Haruhi's thought enough in this story, the Ootori family is very weird. Everybody in the family is. Anyway, next chapter includes TamakiHaruhi and MoriHaruhi. And it's not pre-written this time so I actually gotta put some work into it. Yay. _

_So uh...yeah. I promise this will be one of the only, if not THE only, boring chapters in the story. I just thought you all might want a filler-ish chapter. It explains stuff, though, if only to Haruhi._

_But yep. See ya Thursday, guys! _

__~CGA


	5. Chapter 5

**WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE ANIME AND MANGA. READ AT OWN RISK. Thanks.**

* * *

It was finally Monday, after a long, treacherous weekend of spending time with Kyoya. At least, that's what Haruhi thought. She wasn't sure if the feelings were reciprocated by the Shadow King, but if what his sister told her was true, and If Kyoya's family really set this whole thing up, then he wasn't too fond of the situation, either.

But there were still too many things she didn't know.

For the time being, though, as the classes of the day dragged on and on, when club activity time came at long last, Haruhi was ecstatic, to say the least. She would finally be able to see her friends. Of course, seeing all the other students' faces at school was a huge relief as well, considering she'd spent her entire weekend with nobody except Kyoya and his family. Though Kyoya had told her to move the remainder of her belongings in that weekend, she never got the chance to because, more or less, she was on house arrest. So it was decided, by Kyoya's father of course, that the servants team up with Ranka to pack up all of Haruhi's things and bring them over. Why her father had agreed to such a ludicrous thing she still didn't understand.

Haruhi walked by herself all day for the first time since before the weekend, feeling quite relieved. As she walked up to Music Room No. 3, she felt her heart ache in anticipation of what awaited her. Would the guests be happy to see her again today? Would she be treated any differently now that she was just a little bit older? What kind of games would they be playing today? What kind of dress-up was on the agenda?

Suddenly, she felt a tremendous weight from her left hand, and when she looked down, memories from the weekend came flooding back into her mind. That stupid ring. This stupid marriage. It all made no sense.

And then she realized something she really didn't want to deal with: Kyoya. He would be in there, as always, smirking down at his clipboard and pretending everything was fine. She really didn't understand him. Would he be able to act as if nothing had happened over the weekend now? It wasn't as if his own left hand was bare…

That was another problem, she came to think. Would she be able to hide the ring, even just for now? Or did Kyoya have some sort of plan? She remembered that no matter how much she tried, the gold ring wouldn't slip off of her finger. Maybe the dress-up for today included gloves or mittens of some sort, she told herself nervously. Hopefully that was the case.

She couldn't ponder any longer, anyway, because she heard two distinct voices coming from behind her, which she instantly recognized.

"Hikaru, Kaoru!" she cried, turning around and running towards them. She wasn't in their class this year, so she barely got to see them anymore.

They were both equally surprised when she wrapped her arms around each of the boys rather awkwardly. Haruhi was never one for hugs, so this made it all the weirder.

Hikaru blushed, nonetheless. "Eh, Haruhi, what's this about all of the sudden?"

"I missed you guys…" she trailed, closing her eyes as her arms were still draped around each twin's neck awkwardly.

"How out of character," Kaoru joked, prying Haruhi off of him and ultimately Hikaru. He happened to glance down at her hand because he saw something shiny, which was her ring reflecting the sunlight, but he knew better to say anything because of Hikaru. Still, he didn't imagine that Kyoya's literal proposal was real.

He cleared his throat. "In any case," he said, breaking the seconds of silence between the three, "we should get to the club. We don't know what kind of costumes await us."

"Hai, tono would be angry with us if we were late," Hikaru agreed quickly. The three second-years hurried up to the Music Room's door again, this time entering.

"Welcome to the Host Cl – "

"Oh, it's just – "

"Haruhi!"

Tamaki emerged from his spot in the clubroom and ran over to the girl, locking her into one of his embraces. Normally she would have been annoyed and tried to escape, but there was something about today that just made her miss him more than she usually did, if at all. Of course, the weekend had a lot to do with it.

She smiled into the hug and wrapped her arms around him as well. "Tamaki-senpai…"

"We're here too, y'know," the twins said together, slightly annoyed.

The couple pulled apart awkwardly and watched as everybody stared at them – everybody in the Host Club, anyway. There weren't any guests yet, for some odd reason. Haruhi thought she was late.

There was another strange thing as well that she noticed.

"Why aren't you guys wearing costumes?"

She half expected the Shadow King to answer but was grateful when Honey spoke up instead.

"Kyo-chan proposed a Special Bonding Day!"

Her eye twitched. Well, she couldn't really help talking to him now… "Special Bonding Day?"

"Yes." Kyoya pushed up his glasses. "This day is for the Host Club to bond. As such, there are no costumes because there will be no guests today."

"Eh, but Kyoya-senpai – "

"Why were all of you in front of the door, ready to greet guests, if there aren't any coming in today?" Hikaru finished for Kaoru.

"Some guests can't resist my charm," Tamaki said, flipping his hair. "We have to always be prepared to greet them."

The twins looked at each other and shrugged.

Kyoya just smirked, not providing an actual answer. Instead, he looked back to Haruhi. "Are you okay with this?"

Now her other eye was twitching, but it stopped long enough for her to formulate a question. "How does it work?"

"I'm glad you asked," he replied, still smirking. "Club activities usually last two hours, right?" He didn't bother waiting for any nods. "And there are six of us, seven if you include yourself. That means, if we split up into groups of two, but keep the twins together, there will be two groups of two and one group of three. We will rotate groups. Each group will bond for thirty minutes, and afterwards we will come back together and bond as a group for the remaining time."

Well…one thing was certain. She knew that Tamaki had at least something to do with this whole plan, otherwise it wouldn't have sounded so stupid and pointless. Still, she couldn't exactly say she was bothered by this plan. Come to think of it, she wasn't really in the mood to deal with all sorts of guests today. And if she got lucky, maybe she would be paired up with Tamaki for one of those half-hour segments.

"Any objections?" he asked, a shot in the dark. Perhaps he kept the explanation vague so that nobody else would really understand it, hence no questions. Anyone who wasn't an idiot could sense that he was tired, presumably from this weekend, but only himself and Haruhi would know that. She remembered seeing him slaving over the table in his room with an open book and dozens of notepads spread around him late the previous nights, presumably studying for something.

"Then, Honey-senpai, would you please read off the first list of groups?"

"Mm!" the Lolita boy responded cheerfully. Again, anyone who wasn't an idiot could tell the small boy was happy to be out of college for a while. He produced a thin sheet of paper from his pocket and took a deep breath before reading aloud.

"Group One: Mitsukuni Haninozuka and Kyoya Ootori.

"Group Two: Takashi Morinozuka and Haruhi Fujioka.

"Group Three: Kaoru and Hikaru Hitachiin and Tamaki Suoh."

"Gah!" The single vowel was drawn out by Tamaki as he lowered his head in despair. Then he brought it up and pointed at the twins in a menacing way. He soon wore an expression of dread. "Why do I have to be paired up with these little devils?! Let me be with Haruhi! Let me be with my little girl! My daughter!"

"Mori-senpai, should we get going?" Haruhi asked the tall brunet, completely ignoring Tamaki now.

"Mm." He nodded and the two began to walk away, presumably to find a spot that wasn't so noisy.

"Noooooo, Haruhi!" Tamaki reached out his hand in an attempt to bring her back, but to no avail, of course.

Meanwhile, the twins came up to the blond king and snickered triumphantly behind him in their 'devilish' tones.

"Noooo!"

"Honey-senpai, let's go somewhere quiet," Kyoya interrupted the despair affair, pushing his glasses up his nose. He looked down at Honey, who quickly nodded.

"Hai! Let's go, Kyo-chan!"

"Wait! No! Honey-senpai, Kyoya! Don't leave me with these devil sons! Come back here, AB-blood brothers!"

"Ah, gomen, Tamaki," Kyoya said with fake innocence, pretending that his insincere apology meant something.

With that, they left Tamaki and the twins alone.

…

Haruhi and Mori walked around outside the club room for a little while before they finally decided on an abandoned classroom since they were running out of time, or so they thought. Granted, both were relatively level-headed students, so neither one found much point to this activity anyway, but they didn't want to upset the other club members, so they participated.

Mori gestured towards an empty desk for Haruhi to sit at, and as she did so, he pulled around the desk right on front of it, putting them together so they could face each other while they sat.

No words were said at first, with both of them used to being at least somewhat quiet. She spoke first.

"Mori-senpai, how's college?"

"Fine," he replied unenthusiastically. Naturally, he and Honey went to the same university. It wasn't because he was still so worried about the smaller boy getting into trouble, because he knew the blonde could handle himself, so much as the university offered a variety of courses.

She bit her lip. She forgot the last time she and Mori-senpai had actually had a time all to themselves when they could talk together like this. She figured it was probably sometime around the time she first joined the club and they went to Kyoya's family's indoor waterpark/jungle/tropical whatever they called it, back when Honey-senpai got lost.

"What are you studying?" she tried.

"Law."

Well, that was unexpected. She wanted to study to become a lawyer as well. Mostly it was to make sure her mother would be proud of her… But she had her own reasons as well.

"Oh." She didn't really know what else to say. "Have you thought about working for the Ootori law firm?"

She almost clamped her hand over her mouth. Why did she say that?!

His lips curved into a smile. "Yeah."

She was a bit dumbfounded. She really hadn't meant to say that. But it seemed like he was taking it seriously, for some reason. Was he actually considering it?

"But I'm not going to do it."

Her expression darkened and a wind of realization hit her. "Of course not."

But then her interest got the best of her. "Why did you choose law?"

He shrugged. "It's interesting."

That was true, she had to admit. "I want to study law too, to become a lawyer. I want to do what my mother did and make her and my father proud."

"Haruhi."

"Huh?" She looked up, not having realized she was even looking down.

"We all come from different families," he stated simply, though judging by the look on his face, there was much more to it than that.

"Mori-senpai…"

"Mitsukuni is the older son of the family. He is trained well in martial arts, but is not well-liked by his brother. He is expected by his father to be a fighter at any given time, no matter the circumstances. He has not seen his mother since she divorced Yorihisa-sama when Mitsukuni was young.

"Hikaru and Kaoru come from a world of their own, where no rules or other people existed. They grew up relying only on each other, and that eventually shaped their personalities. Hikaru was dependent on Kaoru, because Kaoru would watch him play games and tell him what to do next. Kaoru is more independent by himself than Hikaru."

He paused to watch her face, seeing if she knew where he was going with this. When he didn't get a response, he continued.

"Kyoya is expected too much of. Anyone can see this based on his struggle to impress his father. He will never be as important to his father as his two brothers are, however he continues to strive for the acceptance he wants.

"Tamaki comes from a broken family of only his father and grandmother." He managed a soft smile despite all the somber stories he was retelling. "At least now he can visit his mother whenever he wishes to. His grandmother has finally accepted him."

He paused again and looked straight at Haruhi. "You lost your mother at a young age. You strive to live by her terms and her rules, mixed in with few of your own. You're a commoner."

Her face dropped even more so after that last line. Why did being a commoner matter so much around here? But then she realized he left out one of the Hosts in the Club.

"Mori-senpai? What about you?" she asked.

His face lost its expression now. "I lost my mother when I was in Elementary School. I've been working in the family company since I was young." He turned away towards the window. "The rest doesn't matter."

Haruhi stayed silent, still not entirely sure what was meant by all this.

"Tamaki wants the Club to be a family. He wants to give us a good family life so we can forget about our bad ones."

Well, now it made a little more sense. About Tamaki wanting to keep everybody literally 'related,' anyway.

"Haru-chan!"

She turned her head towards the door, where she heard the voice come from. Undeniably it was Honey-senpai, but what could he be doing here? Was time up already?

In no time at all he showed up in the doorway, grin on his face.

"Haru-chan, time's up! Time to spend time with me!" He ran into the room and grabbed her by the arm, yanking her away from Mori.

"Ah… Mori-senpai, thanks for the talk!" she made sure to say before he was completely out of sight. She saw him nod and felt more at ease, though she wondered how he was to find out who was his next partner.

"Honey-senpai, where are we going?" she now asked the short blonde.

"Somewhere!" he responded happily. Sometimes, she thought, he was just a little bit too happy.

Soon he settled on a secluded hallway on the other side of the school. So that meant they'd probably wasted a lot of their time as well…

Instantly Haruhi sat down and crossed her legs, acting at least somewhat like a girl now that she was sure there were no guests around. She even resorted to using 'atashi,' though it was a bit weird getting used to it. Across from her, Honey also crossed his legs and she had to stifle a laugh.

"Haru-chan!" he suddenly blurted out at her.

"Uwah?!" she was caught off guard. "Honey-senpai, there's no need to shout my name three times in the short period of time we've been together!" She sighed, calmed down a little. "Anyway, what?"

"Do you like Kyo-chan!"

It wasn't even a question, though she had the lingering feeling it was meant to be one. Still, what did he mean by that?

"As a friend? Yes, of course." Though, she had to admit, right now at this particular time in her life, she wanted absolutely nothing to do with the Shadow King, given their situation.

Honey shook his head. "More than a friend!"

Haruhi's eye twitched again. "Of course not! Why would I?"

"Eh? Aren't you marrying him?"

She let out a tiny groan. "Yes, thank you for reminding me, Honey-senpai…"

"Sorry," he said, suddenly ashamed. Well, he _was _prying.

"But you still love Tama-chan, right?" he pressed further.

She closed her eyes and let loose another groan, annoyed. "Yes, I love Tamaki-senpai." She didn't realize it until a few moments later, but she was blushing when she said that. They hadn't spent time together in a while.

"Ah… Then, you should fix your situation, Haru-chan." He closed his eyes. "It doesn't look good."

"Eh?" She was curious now, she had to admit.

Honey sighed. "I was just with Kyo-chan. He told me about the situation, and he said his father doesn't plan on backing down anytime soon."

"…Oh."

That was quite some bad news, especially if she was already forbidden from leaving the house simply to go to her own for a while. It wasn't as if her telling Kyoya she wanted a night away from her dad meant that she never wanted to see him again. It had been bad enough being away from her friends for even that short amount of time, just knowing she couldn't see them, let alone Tamaki.

Honey's demeanor had changed drastically within the past minute or two, his expression now somewhat somber. "Haru-chan… I hope you will do what's best for you. Ganbaru."

She was still a little lost in her thoughts, though she nodded nonetheless. These were some of the thoughts she never wanted to think about ever again, along with the memories of the weekend. This was turning out to be a pretty crummy after-birthday for her – a ridiculous seventeenth year.

"Ah, Haru-chan, we should go now," Honey broke through her thoughts, glancing at one of the clocks on the wall. So even rich kids could tell time. Haruhi had thought the clocks were there solely for decoration.

Nevertheless, the two smallest Hosts stood up and began their walk back to the Music Room to see who each would be paired up with next.

"Haruhiiiiii!" came Tamaki's voice from virtually out of nowhere.

"Tamaki-senpai! What are you doing?" she tried to ask loudly, but her breath was caught in her throat as he dragged her by her arm giddily.

"We're paired up for the final bonding time! Isn't this exciting?!"

He seemed to be ignoring any efforts made by the girl to struggle and wriggle away, instead focusing on dragging her wherever he saw fit for the time being.

"Senpai, where are we going?" she asked rather calmly, now running at a leisurely pace right behind him. He at least seemed to listen more when she was level-headed, or else he would get upset and not listen at all. It was just another perfect example of the kid still trapped inside of him.

Still, her question was ignored as he continued to run faster and faster towards the outside of the school building.

"Ah… Tamaki-senpai, I don't think Kyoya-senpai wants us to go out this far," she said hastily, still confused about where he wanted to go.

He looked back at her quickly with shining blue eyes. "Haruhi, stop worrying. Do you think Kyoya will yell at us?"

Something about his abrupt change in tone and appearance made her blush warmly, and she looked away in embarrassment. She didn't answer.

And then she didn't realize where they were until he at long last let go of her arm. She turned her head and stared with no words at the gazebo in front of her.

"Tamaki-senpai, this is…"

"Isn't it amazing?!" He gestured with his arms to all the nature surrounding them, twirling happily in a circle. If they were with everybody right now, she would definitely be embarrassed.

"This isn't hide-and-seek, senpai," she said coldly, glowering at him.

But he seemed unfazed for the most part, and only pulled her closer to him as he took a seat on the small bench inside the gazebo. She blushed profusely, not used to this kind of contact at all anymore.

"Haruhi."

"H-hai?" She was so nervous, yet she just didn't understand why. What was it about his presence that made her so unsure of herself?

"Do I make you uncomfortable?" He pressed his lips up against her ear, causing her to shiver and blush uncontrollably.

"Tamaki-senpai…"

"Call me by name, Haruhi," he said suddenly. He turned her chin now so that they were facing each other. She was still blushing a bit.

"T…Tamaki…kun," she managed to push out, cheeks still on fire, more so now.

"That wasn't so hard, was it?"

He inched his face even closer to hers, pressing his forehead against her own. "Haruhi."

"..Hai?" It was barely above a whisper. Her eyes were closed.

"I love you."

Her eyes shot open and she tried to move away from him but he grabbed ahold of her hands, stopping her from moving too far away. Of course they'd confessed before, but being so open about it now of all times… It was too much for her to handle.

"Tamaki-senpai, this is just too weird and I feel like we shouldn't be saying this stuff to each other right now at this very time, I mean we might be too young to even understand what love is, I mean – "

She was cut off by his lips pressing up against hers, and her resistance fell as she melted into it, no longer struggling to get out of his grip. Her eyes, which had jolted even more open when he kissed her, had shut themselves again, and she realized she was enjoying every second of it. He was really a very good host.

They pulled apart after several seconds and Haruhi blushed again. If anybody were out here right now, surely they'd see what was happening…

Even so, she cleared her throat and tried her best to appear calm as she stared into Tamaki's blue eyes.

"I love you too." She smiled.

Tamaki threw his arms around her small frame and pulled her closer to his chest, ruffling her short hair. They stayed like that for a moment until Tamaki spoke again.

"Haruhi, promise me you'll never leave me."

He was looking straight into her eyes, as was she into his. But the strange thing was she didn't feel uncomfortable at all. She didn't feel like she was talking to a child anymore. She felt like she was talking to the Tamaki-senp…_kun _she fell in love with. He wasn't just her senior anymore, he was a best friend. No, _the _best friend. He put on his silly, giddy front in order to cheer people up. And, for the most part, it worked. Even when he pretended (though most of the time it was sincere) to be upset, he knew in some way he was brightening people's days. But when he was alone with her, he didn't have to be an entertainer. He could just be himself, and she loved him for it.

She smiled at him.

"I promise."

* * *

_A/N: Eh... This chapter didn't want to be written .-. Sorry if it's kinda bad. I tried to include some fluffy moments, along with some signature Ouran comedy, though, so maybe it's not as bad as I think it is :o. Anyway, I haven't really proofread this one as much as I did the other ones (and even last chapter I noticed a few minor errors I still need to fix when I'm not so lazy). _

_SO THIS CHAPTER KIND OF MARKS THE BEGINNING OF THE ACTUAL LOVE TRIANGLE. YAY LOVE TRIANGLES. Yeah. I hate them too, actually, why am I saying yay?_

_...Anyhow, thanks to all my reviewers! You guys keep me going! And of course, the followers count as well ;) If it weren't for all of you guys I'd probably be scrapping this thing right about now. Eh, it's all right though. First fic that I actually intend on finishing, lol. _

_Well you guys don't want to listen to me rant, so I'll just go now... See you guys again on Sunday! Hope this chapter was at least decently presentable :)_

_**Edit. Sorry guys! I'm unexpectedly reeeeally busy all of the sudden, so um... I think I'm going to change the updates to just every Thursday now. Stupid high school :( You'll see the next update on Thursday, I promise! =)**  
_

~CGA


	6. Chapter 6

**WARNING: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR THE ANIME AND MANGA IN THIS STORY. READ AT OWN RISK. Thanks.**

* * *

How can somebody make a promise they're not willing to keep? Doesn't it eat at them inside? Doesn't it at least hurt them in some way to know that they're bringing pain to others?

Haruhi pondered this as she waited for her blond boyfriend to finally meet her at the designated place.

It had seemed like almost an hour ago already she left the Ootori estate with Kyoya. Although his company had felt nice at the time, now he was just bothering her greatly, especially since he wouldn't let up about her relationship with Tamaki and teasing her about her 'love affair' and 'cheating'. She knew he was joking, though, so she didn't really try to make a point about how she was dating him first before all this marriage garbage got in the way.

She'd been living with the Ootoris for almost a full month now. Haruhi felt strange knowing that. She was beginning to feel at home, though, which frightened her. She didn't particularly want to get used to living like Kyoya, let alone _with _him.

Then there was the whole fact that she wasn't allowed out of the house without an escort, namely Kyoya. Apparently Kyoya's family was afraid she'd run away or something – rightfully so, at least right now.

They'd gotten by at school without any fuss about the rings, thankfully. Truthfully, a few girls had seen Haruhi's, but she quickly made up a story about it being her mother's before she passed away, and she gave it to her to wear on her ring finger until someone worthy enough of putting a different ring on it came along – a story the girls seemed to buy, actually.

Kyoya was able to take his off. She didn't know how, considering whenever she tried to take off her own, it wouldn't at all budge. Maybe hers was rigged…

In all seriousness, Haruhi was tired of having to be with Kyoya basically twenty-four-seven. She lived with him, ate her meals with him, slept in the same room as him (and at times in the same bed). It was beginning to wear on them both, she suspected. She didn't know how actual married couples did it.

But this just led her back to the problem at hand, which just so happened to be Tamaki and his tendency to show up late for one of their dates, yet again. Though…she supposed she couldn't exactly call it a date – or many of their other prior meetings – because of Kyoya the chaperone looming over them. Of course he always kept a fair and safe distance, but that never made it any less awkward. Truthfully, she would have been all right if they could have cancelled a couple times, if only because of the awkwardness of knowing that someone was watching her flirt with her boyfriend.

Though, she supposed it wasn't so bad this time, if only because she hadn't been seeing so much of Kyoya lately. He was always shut up inside his room while she was forced to converse with the servants, which was hardly something that anyone would rather her do when she's not with Kyoya. She was able to talk with Fuyumi for little more than minutes at a time, and she still had to figure out what Kyoya's sister wanted to tell her about.

She felt something vibrate against her side. She glanced down and opened her clutch purse, finding it was her cell phone. She sighed inwardly, already fearing she knew what was in store for today.

She opened up the phone and pressed it against her ear. "Hello?"

"Haruhi!" came Tamaki's voice. He sure sounded cheerful, but Haruhi knew better.

"Senpai? What's wrong?" she asked, not bothering to beat around the bush. It was reasonable, considering she was all dolled-up with nobody to share it with. Nobody except Kyoya, who she didn't really feel like speaking to yet again. It wasn't like he was her boyfriend.

She could hear hesitation in his voice on the other side of the receiver.

"Well…"

She sighed, this time out loud. "Spit it out, Senpai." She ignored his wish for her to call him by name.

"I can't make it to our date!"

Haruhi's face fell, though she suspected this already. "Why not?"

"Exams," was his forced, rushed answer. There was a lot of background noise. "I have to go bye."

Her mouth fell open a bit. She could barely understand what he said at the end, but it sounded like he was busy so she decided not to press the issue further.

Several feet away in the public park, a group of three kids walked, looking over at Kyoya and Haruhi. One of them pointed at the two and shouted, "Look! They're getting married!" The other two kids laughed and they all ran away when they saw the glare that Kyoya gave them.

She lowered the phone away from her face and put it back in her purse, confused. The usually smug Shadow King sat beside her on the bench, most likely to keep her company while she waited for Tamaki, she presumed. It was also probably because if they were caught together by one of his servants they would be less suspicious since at least they were together. He was fumbling with his clipboard as always, but he kept just enough distance in between the two of them so that she couldn't see what he was writing.

"Kyoya-senpai?"

"Yes?" he asked without looking up or over at her, completely focused on whatever work he was doing.

"When are entrance exams?"

It was a stupid question and she knew it.

"Next month. Why?"

What month was it right now? March? So next month was April already… That meant it was almost time for the new year to start. She couldn't believe she missed that. Her birthmonth came and went quickly, though she supposed it was a good thing because that meant she'd have to spend less and less time with Kyoya due to college. But then again, maybe that was a bad thing, considering their situation…

He uncrossed his legs and stood up, turning around to face her. He offered a hand for her to grab so she could stand up. "I presume Tamaki isn't coming."

It wasn't a question and she knew it. And he was right – he wasn't coming. Again. It was hard to keep up an 'everything's all right' façade all the time without somebody to seriously talk to. Kyoya was there, but she hardly ever felt like talking to him about anything other than school, if at all.

But still, if entrance exams were coming up, then that meant that Kyoya had to be taking them too…right? And why would Tamaki be so behind them if his father was the superintendent of the school?

"Kyoya-senpai?"

"You're wondering if they're entrance exams, correct? And if they are, have I already taken them?"

He was still sticking his hand out for her like an idiot, and only after he asked that did she realize it. She took it and stood up at long last, brushing the bench's dirt from her dress.

He didn't really wait for her to answer. "You see, Haruhi," he began, pushing up his glasses, "I'm nowhere near as irresponsible as Tamaki is." He started to walk away and she hurriedly followed after him. "I have been studying for entrance exams for a while now, as you've no doubt noticed."

She nodded but he couldn't see her. _In other words, _she thought, _Tamaki-senpai's just an idiot._

Neither of them talked for a while. When Kyoya opened his mouth again they were already in front of the family car.

"In any case," he said, opening up the door for her, "we should return home, don't you think?" He waited for her to climb in before going in after her and shutting the door. It was hardly a limo, so the doors and inside weren't nearly as roomy as one; instead it was a simple Ootori family car, yet it enticed outsiders with its looks.

It was silent inside the vehicle as they made their way back to the Ootori estate.

…

Once back at the house, Kyoya was asked by his father to resume his exam studying. The Shadow King originally intended to anyway, but later in the day considering Haruhi's date was supposed to take longer than it did. He did feel rather bad about that, but it wasn't his problem.

He retired to his room and Haruhi was again left to herself to do as she pleased as long as it wasn't disruptive.

Haruhi huffed, already bored, and decided it was probably best to change out of her dress. They were uncomfortable, to be sure – and the hair extensions were painful, to say the least. She quickly yanked them out and uncaringly threw them on an end table, already beginning to walk down the hallway towards the bedroom she and Kyoya shared.

She didn't really care that he was studying – he'd just left not even two minutes ago, so he couldn't have been too far just yet, so it wasn't like she'd be bothering him. Besides, he'd surely understand why she wanted to change out of the uncomfortable clothes the maids had coaxed her to change into.

As she approached the door, she was so lost in thought with Tamaki and Fuyumi and her father and everybody else plaguing her mind. She tried to push away all the overwhelming thoughts, but all it did was make her think about them more. She thought a lot about her father, remembering the first time she had found out that he was a cross-dresser.

She had been scared of the thunderstorm outside and wanted to sleep in her dad's bed because it was more comfortable than hers. She just slid the door to the side, blanket in hand, which she used to cover up her face to shield her eyes from the sight in front of her. Her father was in the process of stuffing his bra with tissues. He profusely apologized, and since then it'd been awkward during the nights since Ranka would often leave halfway through the middle even if there was a thunderstorm and Haruhi was scared.

He'd tried to insist that it was just a hobby – that it didn't mean anything – but unfortunately for Haruhi, as she grew older, she began to understand more and more of her dad's life. It scared her. To know that her father had a secret life completely separate from his household was too much for her to handle while she was growing up.

Now, though, she just accepted that her father was different than the rest, but in a good way: there was never a boring day at her house.

How did it start? How did she come to realize her father's strange 'hobby,' as he called it?

It was just a slide of the door… a turn of the knob…

She was staring into a bunch of nothingness, or so she thought. There was just one solid color in front of her that she could see – blue. But, wait… a bit of black began to come into focus, and there was some sort of pale color – and on top of that, she was pretty sure she'd heard a slight gasp.

"Haruhi, don't you know it's rude to barge into other people's rooms?"

Haruhi's eyes widened. _Oh, jeez… What did I do? _She didn't know whether to still act shocked or apologize or just turn around and walk away –

"It's my house, too," she found herself blurting out, quickly covering her mouth with her hand. She had to remind herself to avert her eyes from the half-naked Kyoya in front of her but it didn't seem to be working too well. She did have to admit, though, for all the time wasted being the club's finance manager, he certainly found the time to stay fit.

Kyoya cleared his throat, causing Haruhi to look away, a crimson blush beginning to appear on her cheeks.

"If you're quite done now…" he began, "I would very much like to resume changing out of my formal clothes."

_Oh yeah. _Haruhi remembered that he was still clad in the suit he had to wear practically everyday, even more so today because of the date – every time he left the house with Haruhi, it was because Kyoya had persuaded his father into thinking he was taking Haruhi out, rather than escorting her to her real date.

"Um…sure." She stole another glance at him, not really knowing why. "Do – do you want me to leave?"

"I think that would be a suitable conclusion, yes." He stared at her. "Unless you would rather stay here while I leave for the bathroom."

"That won't be necessary!" she replied hurriedly, turning on her heel and dragging her feet through the door, shutting it behind her.

She sank down to the floor and heaved a sigh. "That was weird," she said to herself.

In any case, though, why was she so warm after that? She seemed to be sweating a little, too. This wasn't right. She'd seen many men shirtless in her life, especially since when she was little she loved the beach, so why was she so flustered this time? Was it just because Kyoya was a friend?

That had to have been it. But, then again… The whole club had donned costumes consisting of just pants before and she'd never had a problem with it.

Then it must have just been because she was the only one there with him, right?

She leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. The whole scene was too overbearing that she forgot to grab her more comfortable clothes. She supposed she could wait until Kyoya was done getting changed, though. She certainly didn't need another event like that happening any time soon.

Haruhi stood back up and decided to knock on the door. She still didn't quite understand why she couldn't just have her own room, but she guessed it was best not to question it. She exhaled, and then knocked on the door.

"Kyoya-senpai?" she inquired semi-quietly.

"Mm? You're still here, Haruhi?" came his reply.

She bit her lip. "Yes. I just need to grab some clothes." Just a few seconds in the room to dash to the dresser and grab whatever she could grab first would suffice for now, as long as she made sure to grab one of each garment.

"Ah. Come in, then."

"Are you – "

"I'm done changing, yes. There's no need to worry."

She heaved another sigh of relief and turned the knob, stepping into the room she was in just a few minutes ago. Kyoya was at the small table with some open textbooks, presumably studying for exams. She rushed past him to her dresser on the other side of the room, doing her best to ignore him.

It worked until he spoke, of course.

"You seem tense, Haruhi."

The brunette dropped the clothes she'd gathered back into the drawer and she turned around to glare at him, but when she did, she saw that he was still just staring at his textbook. He wasn't even looking at her when he spoke.

Of course he'd forgotten about it already, she realized. She smiled. It really wasn't anything to get all worked up over. It was just a spacy moment for her, and Kyoya probably knew that. It wasn't that big of a deal.

She gathered up the clothing again and retreated into the bathroom, feeling much more relieved than earlier. Laying the articles on the sink, she began to strip, replacing her dress with more comfort, like her sweatpants and simple t-shirt. She had the nicest set of matching underwear to go with the outfit, too –

But of course she hadn't grabbed the bra and was only left with the panties. She huffed. Without the top she would feel naked…and she practically was if it wasn't for the t-shirt. It wasn't like she had much to cover, she knew this much, but still, a lady going without the proper under attire wasn't something she liked to think about much.

But she was sure she grabbed it, now that she thought about it! She had made sure to hide it in between her pants and shirt to make sure Kyoya didn't see it. That meant…

_Oh no, it fell?!_

"Ehehe…" She could only hope now that Kyoya was still studying and didn't happen to notice anything falling from her pile of clothes.

Haruhi donned her t-shirt and sweatpants, at the least, and opened the door just a tiny bit, peeking through to see just where the Shadow King was. Sure enough, he was still at his station, studying away. And there was the accursed item…! It lay a few feet from the bathroom, face-up, though there wasn't much to see, anyway.

She sneaked out on all fours and tried a head-on approach. She crawled towards the article, keeping an eye on the studying Ootori son, and once she grabbed it she grinned inwardly. What an accomplishment. The girl retreated back to the bathroom and shut the door quietly.

"Haruhi?"

"Eh?"

"You know you could have just grabbed it, right?"

Haruhi's face went pale, and she slunk to the floor, hands on the floor mat beneath her. She really shouldn't have underestimated Kyoya-senpai's eye, especially when she wasn't exactly the most sneaky person ever.

She decided to let it slide, though – it wasn't as if he'd actually _seen _it, right? – and finished changing, feeling much better afterwards.

When Haruhi left the small room she was half-expecting Kyoya to look her way but he didn't. He sat in the same position, now a pencil in his mouth, bite marks present. She stifled a chuckle but didn't manage so well. She caught the Shadow King's attention.

"What?" he asked.

Haruhi smiled. "Nothing. I just didn't expect Kyoya-senpai to be a pencil chewer." _Even Kyoya-senpai has a weird and bad habit, huh?_

"Yes, I suppose," he responded lamely, not really interested. He returned his eyes to the book, and then seemed to remember something.

"Haruhi?"

"Yes?"

"Make sure you tell a chef to come in here. It's almost lunchtime but I don't think anything is prepared yet."

"Y-yes!" Truth be told, she didn't really know how to boss around a servant. From what she'd seen of them, they were just regular people like herself. It was a little disheartening to know that she would be telling adults much older than her what to do.

Still, she supposed she probably should do as Kyoya said for now, so when she closed the bedroom door behind her, she walked down the hallway to try and find a servant to prepare lunch.

* * *

A/N: Kyoya-centric chapter, pretty much. I just felt like I had to write a chapter about him so he's not hated in the story :c Really short, but next chapter'll be longer!

Okay so before I go on a half-page rant about how sorry I am for never updating when I was supposed to and breaking all my promises to you guys, let me just say this:

MOST, if not ALL, of the guests know that Haruhi is a girl in the manga when she reveals it at last, buuuuut it kinda sorta maybe doesn't exactly work in here, so I'm just gonna nonchalantly leave that part of the manga out. (I was actually originally intending to edit that part in the last chapter when Haruhi talks to Honey and she's glad that she can act like a girl but decided against it cuz my plans would be ruined.)

Anyway, yeah, so nobody but the club knows that Haruhi's a girl, and all the guests are still infatuated with her because they want to get to know her and everything, pretty much nothing's changed there.

On the subject of change, I really hope I'm not changing the characters' personalities too much. I don't want to be one of those heavily-OOC authors unless it's crack.

I'll save you guys my half-page-long rant with apologies. Instead, I'll just say I'M SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYY. To be completely honest, a LOT of the reason why it took me so long to write this is because I was trying my best to research when Japanese students started entrance exams and everything cuz I didn't want anyone to get mad or yell at me, telling me it was wrong... But I stopped caring, so this is the result.

Ehh, all right, another apology. These later chapters may or may not be as funny as my previous ones :C It's been a while since I've watched the series, and even longer since I've read the manga now hah. I've got a bunch of other series stuck in my head before this one comes into play, so it's just kinda stuck back in my head, trying to come out... I'll try and make them better! I've managed to get a page or two full of ideas in Word, so it's not like I'm letting this die.

So yeah. Sorry for the long wait in updates D: I have one more week of high school though! And my birthday's tomorrow so I'll be in much better spirits now :) And hopefully not as busy.

Kay, enjoy!

_~CGA_


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